When my sister, Gina, and I were teenagers, an elderly couple from Maranatha Baptist Church picked us up on Wednesdays to take us to church. They were a wonderful couple and probably in their late 60s.
Gina and I rode in the backseat of the car. J.C. drove and his wife, Maria, sat beside him. Near Chavies, we rounded a curve, and Maria said, “Watch that hole, J.C.”
Instead of being a backseat driver, I’m guessing she was a passenger side driver. Frequently. Her comment irritated him.
“I see it!” he said, grumbly.
A second later: BAM!!!
The entire car shook and bounced. The hole was a small crater apparently, and the whole tire dropped into it and bounced up. Whether intentional or not on his part, I don’t know. But he came nowhere near to missing it.
Have you ever been in a situation when you don’t want to laugh, no matter how funny the situation seems? That was the situation my sister and I found ourselves in. Holding back laughter is difficult, and for some reason, it makes it far more difficult not to laugh.
She and I exchanged looks, snickered, and then commenced to holding our breath, trying not to laugh. We found it impossible to hold in and burst into laughter. The more we tried to stop, the more we laughed. For days after, we found ourselves still laughing.
All it took was for one of us to say, “I see it!”
BAM!!!
Maybe the incident shouldn’t have been so funny. I suppose it was the timing. Like a punch line. A second after his grumbling reply, he struck the hole.
The worst places to get tickled are in church or class, where you’re supposed to remain quiet. And this was one of those situations, as we weren’t laughing at him, but the irony of the situation.
Until next time ….